All of last season, the Falcons scored only two times while shorthanded.

They accomplished that in about five minutes Friday night.

BG scored three goals in just under eight minutes in the second period, and held on during the third to knock off preseason WCHA favorite and No. 18 Minnesota State, 4-3, in Mankato, Minn., Friday night.

The Falcons (5-2-2, 3-0 WCHA) won their first three conference games for the first time since the 1994-95 season, and kicked off a hellacious four-week stretch by picking up two points in their first WCHA road game.

Tommy Burke played well in one of his busiest games of the season, stopping 30 of 33 shots faced.

Penalty troubles came back to BG, but it was able to mostly limit the damage while inflicting some of its own. The Falcons gave up a power-play goal 2:08 into the game to Minnesota State’s Teddy Blueger.

However, the Falcons would answer 2:04 later on a goal by Brent Tate, and would score four of the next five goals to chase Mavericks’ all-conference goalie Stephon Williams (four goals on 16 shots in just under 30 minutes) from the game.

BG went went 0-for-5 on the power play, but it didn’t really matter due to the penalty kill’s aggressiveness. Just 2:06 into the second period, Dan DeSalvo scored the first of BG’s two shorthanded goals, after a contact to the head penalty by Ralfs Freibergs. It was the fifth straight game DeSalvo recorded a point (two goals, seven assists during streak).

Minnesota State answered within the minute, with Johnny McInnis tying the game. However, with momentum seeming heading in the Mavericks’ direction, BG clamped down and took it back.

Just 20 seconds after the equalizer, Marcus Perrier was giving a five-minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head. Instead of folding and allowing Minnesota State to take over, BG went on the offensive, with Adam Berkle scoring an unassisted tally to put BG back on top.

Pierre Luc-Mercier scored his third of the season three minutes later, in what ended up being the game-winner.

Sean Flanagan brought the Mavericks within one with 5:37 to go in regulation to make things interesting, but BG was able to hold on to pick up its sixth point in the WCHA standings.

The two teams meet once again tomorrow night at 8:07 Eastern at the Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato, Minn.

About Ryan Satkowiak

Ryan is a features and column writer for BGSUHockey.com. During the day, he works part time for the Sentinel-Tribune and the Findlay Courier, and is a part-time people seater at Buffalo Wild Wings. Ryan covered the BG hockey team for The BG News for two and a half years during his time at BG. You can chat him up on Twitter @Ryan_Satkowiak or by e-mail at Ryan@bgsuhockey.com.

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